Novartis shells out $2 billion for immunology biotech Excellergy
The sign of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis is seen on top of a building at the Novartis Campus in Basel, northern Switzerland, on September 9, 2025.
Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images
Novartis The Swiss pharmaceutical giant plans to buy US-based biotech Excellergy for up to $2 billion and invest in a next-generation allergy treatment that could prove to work faster and better than anything currently on the market. in question Friday.
This acquisition will add Exl-111, an early-stage drug candidate, to Novartis’ existing allergy portfolio. This is the latest bolt-on deal in the company’s attempt to offset looming patent expirations.
Coming in a week Novartis announced is buying Synnovation subsidiary Pikavation Therapeutics for up to $3 billion to secure the rights to an experimental breast cancer drug.
company in february Completed the acquisition of Avidity BiosciencesIt is adding three late-stage programs to its neuromuscular pipeline, with the potential for several launches before 2030.
Excellergy’s pioneering asset is still a few years away from hitting the market. Novartis said it will pay the smaller biotech in both upfront and milestone payments, and the transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals.
Novartis shares were trading flat in morning trading in Zurich. Based in Palo Alto, Excellergy is a privately held company.
Novartis’ shares are up 33% in the last 12 months.
Many of the world’s best-selling drugs face loss of exclusivity in key jurisdictions, what the industry calls the “patent cliff.” By the end of the decade, companies will risk losing hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue as branded drugs face generic competition.
Like the second half of 2025, early 2026 has seen numerous merger and acquisition announcements from Big Pharma. Merck Earlier this week, it announced an agreement to acquire Terns Pharmaceuticals for $6.7 billion. britain’s GSK And AstraZeneca It is also among the companies that announced many agreements in recent months.
Chris Sheldon, GSK’s head of global business development, told CNBC late last year that he is looking for acquisitions in mid-stage development, typically in the $1 billion to $2 billion range, when the biologics are validated but the outcome of a drug candidate is not yet clear. Like Novartis and AstraZeneca, GSK is looking for bolt-on deals that will complement its portfolio and technology.
Novartis warned earlier this year that profits would fall in early 2026 as some of its best-selling drugs, including heart drug Entresto, face generic competition. Its second best-selling drug, Cosentyx, is expected to lose significant exclusivity around 2029.
“We will have a challenging prior-year base in the first half of the year with Entresto, Promacta and Tasigna generics entering the U.S. market in mid-2025,” then-CFO Mukul Mehta said on a post-earnings call with analysts in February.
Novartis is also seeing strong growth in other drugs such as cancer drug Kisqali and multiple sclerosis treatment Kesimpta, but it still needs to increase its stockpiles to offset declines.
CEO Vas Narasimhan said the company was in the midst of the largest wave of patent expirations in its history.
“We will pull $4 billion from three pharmaceuticals during this year,” Narasimhan told CNCB in February.
